Berks man sentenced for fatal DUI crash

Bradley Michael Thompson’s character was on full display.

His kindness and his generosity. His devotion to his family and to his faith. His talent for making friends and playing music. His love of dogs, and his love of humanity. All those facets of his personality were there, for those who knew him and those who did not, to see.

Tragically, however, Bradley Michael Thompson was absent from the scene — physically, at least. Thompson was killed in a drunk driving crash in June 2017, struck while riding his motorcycle on Route 29 south of Phoenixville.

On Feb. 19, the man who killed Thompson — Patrick Miles of Berks County — was sentenced to more than three years behind bars in state prison after pleading guilty to charges of homicide by vehicle while driving under the in-

fluence and driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, in a proceeding before President Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody at which Thompson’s family and friends spoke lovingly about him and heartbreakingly about the loss they had suffered by his death.

“I feel a gaping hole that, at times, sucks the breath out of me,” his mother, Jayne Thompson, told Cody, reading from a statement she had prepared in advance of Miles’ sentencing. “I keep a light on in his room still. I talk to him when I look up in the sky. I look down the stairs where his room light is on and wish him good night.

“Sometimes I expect him to greet me when I come home,” Jayne Thompson said. “Hoping that somehow it was all a bad dream.”

Thompson was driving south on Route 29 around 9:15 p.m. June 1, 2017, outside Phoenixville on his 1982 Yamaha motorcycle when Miles, who was driving a 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup north on the two-lane road, turned left in front of him at the intersection of Buckwater Road. A witness said the pickup did not signal its intention to turn left, and did not have its headlights on at the time of the collision.

Thompson was struck head-on by the truck, and sustained severe trauma. Another driver tried to help him before ambulances arrived and he was taken to Phoenixville Hospital. He was transferred to the Paoli Hospital Trauma Unit, where he died around 3:40 a.m. June 2, 2017. He was 24.

Law enforcement personnel who responded to the crash scene immediately noted an odor of alcohol and others signs of intoxication from Miles, who was largely uninjured in the crash, although both vehicles suffered what Deputy District Attorney Michelle Frei called “catastrophic damage.”

When Schuylkill Town- ship Police Officer James Hennessey, who had responded to the crash even though it had technically occurred in neighboring Charlestown, took Miles to Phoenixville Hospital, he later told investigators, Miles failed field sobriety tests in the parking lot. A check of his blood-alcohol count later showed he was more than three times above the legal limit for intoxication — a blood-alcohol level of .269 percent.

Frei told Cody that a review of his blood-alcohol count by a forensic expert would show that Miles had been at a .30 percent at the time of the crash itself. In addition, he had traces of amphetamines in his blood at the time.

When Hennessey questioned Miles about whether he had been drinking, the driver said he may have had something to drink either at work or shortly after leaving work.

At the scene, State Trooper William Everett searched the interior of Miles’ pickup and found a 1.75 liter bottle of Vladimir vodka on the front passenger floor that had approximately 1/3 of the alcohol gone. A receipt from an area state liquor store showed that Miles had purchased the vodka at 2:17 p.m. that day. In addition, Everett found two empty vodka bottles in the truck cabin, plus a half-full sports drink bottle with vodka in it.

Frei said investigators learned that Miles, who had a previous drunk driving arrest in 1995 for which he was placed on Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, a diversionary program for first time offenders, had previously been disciplined at the place where he worked, Wagsworth Manor, a pet day care and boarding business.

Coincidentally, Thompson worked at a similar business, What A God Dog in Frazer, that offered dog training and care. According to CEO Carolyn Garson, his presence at the business was notable for his outward kindness to everyone who he encountered, human and canine, as well as his love of his own dogs, Lylah and Cody, both rescues.

Miles, 56, of Douglassville, who was accompanied by his attorney, James Freeman of Phoenixville, was sentenced to 39 months to 10 years in state prison for Thompson’s death.

Frei said that her office had refused to waive the minimum mandatory sentence of three years in prison for the crime, and added an extra three months to the sentence because of the circumstances surrounding it, including Miles’ high blood-alcohol count and his previous DUI.

Thompson was a 2011 graduate of Great Valley High School, and studied computer science at Eastern University and West Chester University. He was a member of Christ’s Church of the Valley in Royersford, where he played instruments in the church band. He often appeared at musical events with friends at the Steel City venue in Phoenixville.

In addition to his mother and Garson, three people delivered victim impact statements to Cody at the proceeding.

His father, Alan Thompson, spoke first, and delivered a passionate and tearful memorial to his son, remembering the small kindnesses and big heart Thompson had always displayed.

“If I said nothing else today, it would be that this world is a better place because Brad was in it,” Alan Thompson told Cody. “Brad lived a life that gave life.

“I have known sadness in my life, but I have never been so sad in my life. I know that nothing will bring Brad back to life. But please send a message to this defendant and others like his that innocent lives are sacred in the Commonwealth and will be protected. And that drunk driving will not be tolerated.”

Miles was led from the courtroom in handcuffs to begin serving his sentence.